The present invention relates to an improvement in the methods used to recover automobiles or other vehicles that have become submerged in a body of water. More specifically, to a method of retrieving such vehicles that have become submerged after breaking through the frozen surface of a body of water during the winter months.
As the popularity of winter sports grows throughout the northern hemisphere, more and more people are venturing out onto the frozen surfaces of lakes and rivers for the purposes of ice fishing, snowmobiling or any number of other outdoor winter activities. The inevitable result of this increase in activity is the increase in the frequency that these people and their vehicles encounter dangerously thin ice conditions. The increases in these encounters are either a result of a person's ignorance of the existing ice conditions or their complacency in assessing the risks present. These actions not only place the lives of the people involved at risk, but often result in the vehicle in question ending up on the bottom of the lake or river with the owner having no easy or inexpensive manner of returning it to the surface.
The problems associated with being the owner of a vehicle that has become accidentally submerged in a body of water are exacerbated by the fact that the relevant governmental body often requires that the owners remove them within a specified amount of time. If the owner fails to do so, the government will take on the responsibility of removing the vehicle and pass their incurred costs (which often significantly exceed the costs charged to private persons) to the owner of the vehicle. Additionally, the relevant governmental body will also typically add a significant amount of fines and fees to the final removal bill and in some circumstances, the owners of these vehicles may be subject to criminal penalties. Therefore, to those persons who are unfortunate enough to own a vehicle that has fallen through the ice, a quick and cost effective retrieval of the vehicle is in their best interest.
In the past, the methods employed to retrieve these vehicles has varied greatly. The most commonly employed method generally included the use of a large steel A-frame apparatus that was set up on the surface of the ice somewhere above the submerged vehicle. A cable and winch system was then employed to pull the vehicle to the surface and out of the body of water. While this system was effective in retrieving the submerged vehicle, the problems associated with its use were numerous. The first of these is the overall weight and complexity of the A-frame apparatus made it difficult to move around and set up requiring a relatively large support staff to accomplish. The weight of the apparatus and the large required crew also made it relatively dangerous as it was more likely to break through the ice and end up on the bottom itself. Finally, the complexity of the apparatus and the required use of a relatively large amount of workers in the support crew also increase the total man hours required to complete a vehicle recovery which in turn adds to the final costs bore by the vehicles owner.
Therefore, it can be seen that it would be advantageous to provide a method of retrieving vehicles that have become submerged in a lake or river (most commonly by falling through a dangerously thin layer of winter ice) in a timely manner that requires minimal support staff and man hours to complete. Additionally, it can be seen that it would be advantageous to provide such a recovery method that is light in its overall weight and simple in its operations which in turn lessens the number of workers required to move it around and to position and operate it properly. It can also be seen that the resulting reductions in weight contributes to the overall safety of the retrieval method as it limits the amount of additional weight placed on the surface of the ice. Finally, it can also be seen that the reduction in weight and simplification of the equipment employed in the removal of submerged vehicles will result in fewer man hours being expended which will in turn reduce the final costs incurred by the vehicle owner.